The Reason
by FairyLights101
Summary: "Levi." That smile. Those sky blue eyes. Erwin. The reason he'd joined the Legion. The reason he'd kept with it. The reason he kept fighting, kept living despite the shitty odds. The man he'd come to love.


Levi turned, his gray eyes snapping to the blonde as he landed on the branch below him, given away only by the whir of the maneuvering gear. Their silence didn't last - it couldn't, not with Titans thundering through the forest, drawn by the scent of humans and Eren's screeches from within his Titan form. Not with the screams of the dying piercing their ears from behind.

"How bad?"

"Very."

No surprise there. The rain, the steam generated from those cool droplets hitting super-heated bodies - he hadn't seen it so bad since... The rain had ended but the damage was done.

"Lets go," Erwin murmured over the clamor surrounding them. Go and face death with blades drawn with the steel of determination their hearts. "One more push."

Levi nodded and caught Erwin's arm - the prosthetic one that Zoe had designed months ago. A hand caught his elbow and they pulled each other in closer and closer until their mouths connected and Levi could feel the rough stubble rasp against his skin and taste the blood and coffee on Erwin's tongue.

He could have stayed there forever, locked in a moment of bliss in the middle of chaos. But they pulled apart and Levi released his hooks. The corporal fell through the air, a free-fall to the unforgiving ground below before his hooks shot out and sank into a branch further away, arresting his fall and swinging him forward to the disgusting beasts advancing on them.

He burned. Not with fury, not with fear. Just the rush of adrenaline as it thundered through his veins, pushing him onward. A seven-meter swatted at him, clumsy, chubby fingers spread wide to catch his body, smash it, crush it. Silvery light flew off the blades as he sliced its fingers off.

His body twisted, his blades turning with the momentum as they bit through the flesh on the Titan's arm again and again, severing muscle in a blur of green and silver. The end of the arm came up on him abruptly but Levi was ready. He pushed off its fleshy shoulder, sailing into open air. Levi spun and his hooks sank into the Titan's neck, reeling him in.

Blades descended in a deadly arc until they connected with skin, muscle, sinew, and bone. Carving up whatever was still human inside the nape of the monster's neck. Blood and a crescent of flesh flew through the air, the droplets splattering across the trees as the Titan collapsed to the ground, steam already pouring from its dissolving corpse.

The corporal's hooks slammed into a tree branch high above. Momentum pulled him forward, swinging him through the air in an easy arc as he released the hooks, pushed off the branch, and dropped down in a spiral onto another Titan.

Blistering hot blood sprayed across his face, a tide pouring over his hands. Gross, so damn gross. The hulking thirteen-meter hit the ground as the blood began to disappear from his cheek and hair in thick curls of steam. He couldn't wipe it away - no time. Teeth ground together as he focused, pushing his mind to the Titans, ignoring the feel of thick blood covering his body. Gross. Steam curled off his body as he sought out a new target.

They came and went, blurring in his memory, nothing more than a blur of blood and death. Some had scraps of green and white cloth and metal chunks caught between their teeth. Blood that would never disappear in a curl of steam. Remnants of his comrades - they could have belonged to anyone. Titans stalked through trees, some falling, far too many still standing.

Familiar roars echoed throughout the forest as Eren roamed through between the trunks, slaughtering Titans left and right, leaving a wake of destruction behind him. Two Scouts were near him - Ackerman and Springer probably. Levi didn't have time to dwell on who was guarding the idiotic Titan Shifter as a mammoth hand swept toward him, stained with the gore of his fallen comrades.

The fingers fell away, cleaved from the hand as Levi whipped past. The small soldier hit its arm running, heat rolling off in waves as he sprinted up the fleshy appendage. Another hand moved toward him. Blistering hot flesh collided above as he fell through the air. Gears whirred, the gas canisters hissed as he shot past the Titan's skull, whirled around, and descended upon it, five feet of death to carve out a chunk from its neck. The ten-meter hit the ground before as of its fingers could regenerate the slightest bit.

His feet hit a branch and he stopped for a second, high enough that he was out of danger for a few moments. His blades were dull. Only one set left. His gas canisters were almost empty. He was fucked if he didn't get to the supply wagons and soon. But there was no time to stop, no time to turn back and get what he needed. A fourteen-meter loomed up before him, a sinister smirk on its ugly face, blank eyes peeled wide open.

"Disgusting." Pale hands snapped and flung the blades forward, straight into those lifeless eyes. A pained screech filled the air as its hands rose to its eyes, steam pouring out from behind its palms as its eyes tried to heal around the dull swords stuck in its eyes. He pulled out his new blades - his last.

A flash of green and gold shot in from behind, the familiar figure soaring effortlessly through the air as his arms pulled back for the strike. The blow was hidden but the spray of blood and the hunk of flesh that followed told him what he needed to know - the Titan was dead, not the soldier.

Levi aimed his hooks and caught up with Erwin as they soared to another part of the fray. "Levi, we may have to retreat." Gray eyes flicked to the side. Piercing blues stared at him, all light of hope and optimism gone from their oceanic depths. He glanced forward.

He saw what Erwin failed to.

Levi swung to the side and slammed into Erwin, pushing him out of the way. The Titan's mouth yawned in front of him, its hand and feet with occupied with supporting itself between two trunks. As the cavern of spit and blood and death filled his world, he heard it - one word, two syllables: "Levi!"

Teeth snapped shut behind him with a deafening clack, cutting off Erwin's scream, filling the air with the sound of tearing metal. Sending a blazing surge of agony through his leg, lancing up his spine, and up to his brain. Numbness shot through his leg as he hit the soft, soaking tongue that rolled beneath him, pushing him down to its stomach, to join the remnants of other soldiers.

Levi twisted and slammed his blades into the slick, heaving muscle, arresting his descent. It slammed into him a second later - pure, undiluted agony. _The fucker got my leg_. He could feel the hot blood pulsing out of him with every thump of his heart. Feel the disgusting muscle twist beneath him, trying to swallow him. It was probably pure luck that the dumb oaf of a creature didn't smash him on the roof of its mouth.

Scraps of metal from his gear tumbled around him and disappeared down the Titan's gullet. A quick glance back in the near total darkness revealed it - leg gone to the knee in a jagged stump, a nice chunk taken out of his maneuvering gear. At least he'd gotten his last blades out, and the gear could still function... for the most part.

Something slammed into his face - slimy, gross, five fingers. A fucking human hand. Levi jerked his head to the side and the hand disappeared into the darkness of the Titan's throat. Had it been any other time and if he had a weaker stomach, he might have thrown up.

The Titan lurched around, the movement pulling Levi every which way. It took everything he had to not scream or black out. The world - what it had come down to anyway - swam in a rancid, dark haze. Black tinged his vision. Exhaustion dragged at his limbs. It would be so easy to give up. To close his eyes and let go. To be just another casualty in an ever-growing list.

_"Levi." That smile. Those sky blue eyes._ Erwin. The reason he'd joined the Legion. The reason he'd kept with it. The reason he kept fighting, kept living despite the shitty odds. The man he'd come to love. Levi sucked in a breath, ignoring the reek of rot and blood. _I'm still alive. I can still escape._

Thin fingers clenched around the handles of his swords. The blades dug in a little deeper as Levi dragged himself to his knee, then onto his foot. "I. Will. _Survive_," he spat through clenched teeth.

His hooks sank into the back of the Titan's neck. The impact jarred him, sent a fresh rush of pain searing through him. He shook it off and ground his teeth together. He could hear the screams - faint and pitiful sounds echoing from the Titan's stomach, from soldiers still alive. Ones with no hope of rescue. _I won't be like them._

Levi braced his knee against the disgusting, slippery flesh as he raised his swords high, gray eyes tightened into a glare. The titan jerked forward suddenly, gravity pulling it and Levi down. He lost his purchase on the back of its throat and slammed against the soaking flesh before he fell back, only his hooks and blades keeping him in place.

A new burning ache filled his shoulders from the sudden jerk. A gobbet of saliva plopped on his head, plastering his hair flat and drenching him, joining the flow of blood that poured from his leg. But his blades were through.

The corporal pulled one out, threw it to the side, and thrust his hand through the blistering hot muscle. Severed bits of flesh caught between his fingers as he pushed further and further through the narrow cut. Everything before his hand disappeared abruptly. A soft breeze curled around his fingers, startling enough that he almost forgot that his face was pressed flat against the back of a Titan's throat. _Zoe would have a field day…_

A hand grabbed his almost immediately - or maybe it took a minute or two. He wasn't sure. All that made sense were their shouts, muted but still music to his ears. "Find the Commander! Zeke, get your ass over here and help cut him out! Someone get a medic!"

Levi's hand clenched around the nameless soldier's hand, holding tight as the flesh around him started to shift. Blades broke through, bringing light and liberation with every slice.

When silver eyes snapped open once more, blinding light seared his eyes. Everything ached. Faint wisps of steam curled off his body, remnants of Titan matter slowly decaying from his body. His gear was gone - not that most of it had been salvageable. He felt crusty and gross and cold - except for one spot.

Another hand clutched his, holding on for dear life. A familiar hand, calloused after countless years of using the gear daily, but still soft, warm, _loving_. Levi's head lolled to the side with a bump of the wagon as he squeezed that hand weakly. Too much blood lost to summon much strength.

Those bloodshot sky blue orbs immediately shot to his face. The bleakness that resided there evaporated instantly. "Levi…" His name was an exhale of relief, like he was all that mattered anymore in their fucked up little world. And for Erwin, that was pretty damn close to the truth.

"Hey." Levi winced at his voice - rough, cracking. He sounded like shit. Felt like it too. Crusty with his own blood, what felt like mud too.

"You idiot." Erwin whispered above the rumble of the wagon wheels. It was likely meant to berate him but the relief was overwhelming.

"Can't both be smart…"

Erwin shook his head in exasperation. "I can't believe you, Levi."

"You… you would've died." _I could've died too. Should've died_… But that didn't matter. Because his last action would have been saving Erwin. No body to bury but no regrets either.

Erwin pressed Levi's hand to his forehead. "... I… _Levi_."

Guilt slammed into the little corporal. He'd been selfish. So God damn selfish. But he could replay it once, twice, a _hundred_ times and he wouldn't change the outcome. It would _always_ be the same. He would always push Erwin out of the way, always take his place. Sacrificing Humanities Strongest to save one man. One commander in a long line of others - a one-armed Commander to boot. "You woulda done the same…"

"I know."

"I love you…"

"And I you."

"I'll… need a prosthetic… I'll be ready for th' next expedition." Zoe could design it. Like the one she made for Erwin. A lightweight, flexible, strong, new leg. A tool he could use to continue, to _live_, to eradicate the filth from the world.

Flexible, plastic fingers stroked his cheek, wandered along his skin, swiped away the blood and muck and God knew what else. Pain swam in those eyes, pain and fear. "Levi…"

"Shut up… I'll be ready. _Someone_ has to keep you safe…"

Going out again would be idiocy. Pure unadulterated idiocy. But there was no other way. _We'll survive. Lose a few limbs along the way but hell… We'll be together._ Faint gray wisps of clouds passed overhead as the wagons rumbled closer and closer to the walls. Or maybe they were already inside. He wasn't sure. His body and mind was so heavy. He was tired. But he wouldn't die. No. He would survive.

Levi brought Erwin's had to his lips and kissed those knuckles, scraped raw and bloody - that idiotic genius had probably punched a tree - in thanks. Thankful that they were together. That they were alive.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry for the delay in any uploads - it's been a wee bit hectic. Many thanks to Blackmass, my new beta, and to Rara, who was the first reader and has been a great friend (though I must curse her for introducing me to Eruri and OriSor...)! That's really all I've got. Look forward to more works concerning Eruri, as well as a requested Ereri, a Soul Eater fic, and a Percy Jackson and the Olympians fic. The latter of the two will come out later. Much later.<strong>

**This can be found on AO3 as well. My tumblr is fairylights101 (though it's pretty damn boring).**

**Love you all! Have a wonderful day/night/existence!**


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